Here's Exactly How Grindelwald Did That Thing In "Fantastic Beasts"

Look, it's really hard to write headlines without spoilers.

Guys, if you haven't yet seen Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, what the hell are you doing? Don't read any further please, and go watch the film.

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Anyway, for those of you who've seen it, you know that there is a MAJOR twist at the end, where it turns out that the Auror Graves was actually Grindelwald this whole time.

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Grindelwald was terrorising Europe in the 1920s, when he heard about the potential Obscurus in New York. We know he had a strange fascination with them (Ariana???), so he hightailed it to Manhattan, and impersonated the Director of Magical Security at MACUSA.

There has been a lot of fan speculation about how Grindelwald actually pulled this off.

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Did Grindelwald use some kind of Metamorphmagus charm? Was Graves a real person to begin with, or did the Dark Wizard make up the character of Graves all together?

Well, wonder no more. In an interview with SnitchSeeker, director David Yates revealed that Grindelwald used good ol' fashioned Polyjuice Potion.

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“Yes, there was a real Graves,” Heyman said. “Yes, [Grindelwald] used some Polyjuice Potion and took his place. We didn’t film him. We didn’t film the Polyjuice. We just dived into the story midway through.”

Honestly, you'd think Grindelwald, aka the darkest wizard of the time, would have used something a bit more complex than a potion that second years could whip up in a bathroom.

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¯\_(ツ)_/¯

H/T: Hypable